


Easter Egg Pie

by hanktalkin



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Agender Frisk, Frisk is a Sweetheart, Gen, Growing Up, Sans Remembers Resets, Secrets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-14
Updated: 2018-01-14
Packaged: 2019-03-04 15:35:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13367727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hanktalkin/pseuds/hanktalkin
Summary: Someone keeps resetting, though for different reasons than you’d think





	Easter Egg Pie

Sans stood not far from where Ice Wolf was doing his thing, tossing ice and being a wolf. Sans the Skeleton, was also doing his thing of being a skeleton, but with the additional job of Cool Detective on a Stakeout Who Just Kind of Stands there. The object of his interest was—who else?—the human, as they made their way through Snowdin and inserted themself in literally every corner of the town’s daily life. Currently, they were bouncing on the balls of their feet, knocking on a residential door every now and again, and receiving transactional contented sighs for their efforts. They’d been like that for fifteen minutes.

Sans felt his eyes drift closed, and wondered if other Cool Detectives took naps when their stakeout got too boring. Ha! What was he talking about? Of course they did.

After managing to sleep for six minutes while standing up, Sans jerked himself awake to find that the human had finally deemed their knocking-duties fulfilled. He shook himself, and began to search for his missing quarry. Unhurriedly, though—It’s not like the town was very big. While he occupied himself with that, questioned again why he’d decided to follow the human this timeline, especially when it hadn’t ended up very productive the scant other times he’d tried it. The human barely spoke at all, let alone began monologuing to themself in the middle of Hotland, “haha! All according to plan! Now I shall explain in detail all my secrets and motivations!”

But Sans couldn’t help himself. The past half-dozen timelines had created an itch that needed to be scratched, and answers were the Jutting Out Doorframe of Satisfaction.

He found Frisk just outside of town, wrapping their battle with his brother. Despite knowing the outcome, he still sighed in relief anyway, always glad to see the human humoring Papyrus.

"“Wowie!! We haven’t even had our first date and I’ve already managed to hit the friend zone!!!” Papyrus’s shouts of friendship could be heard all the way through the mist, and Sans rolled his eyes. Why the kid kept flirting with Papyrus, he would never get. They obviously just couldn’t take a hint.

It felt strange watching the human during the tour, like he was intruding on something private. He at least did leave them alone for their “date,” and chilled in his room while he went over what he’d learned today. The main consensus was: jack all. The human went through exactly the same motions they always did, repeating the same friendly conversations over and over again. And that was exactly Sans’ problem.

The first few resets had been rough. Sans had to get back in the hang of it, what with years since that flower had given him trouble, and he prepared himself for the worst of whatever this new person could throw at him. They arrived at Snowdin, covered in dust, but looking like they didn’t know entirely what they were doing. Maybe they didn’t. Sans always had trouble figuring out what went on in that kid’s mind.

But after a few timelines…it’d all settled.

The kid started replaying the same patterns, echoing the same words, laughing at his puns even though he knew they’d heard them a dozen times by now. Why? What were they doing? The flower had bled the whole world dry trying to find every single possible reaction from this place, but the human seemed to want none of it.

It was possible another entity had taken control of the timeline. Snatched it from Frisk just like Frisk had stolen it from the flower. Maybe they were a passenger now, just like Sans.

But he didn’t have any more evidence to that theory, and as he heard his brother’s door open, he realized it was almost time to meet Frisk at the Waterfall. It was only a quick shortcut away, but he was nervous about missing his own arbitrary docket.

“What?” he asked, cracking one eye opened from where he pretended to nap. "Never seen a guy with two jobs before?”

They held a small, mostly one-sided, conversation, the human nodding and smiling at all the right moments. Thumbs up on all the same beats, ordering fries, falling for the catsup bottle trick…

It might have been nice if there wasn’t a constant nagging fear that something was wrong.

Their time at Grillby’s was drawing to a close and Sans prickled that he was no closer to figuring out what was going on. He had to do something. Had to break script.

“So kid,” he said, even the small diversion setting off warning bells in his head.

Frisk looked up from their catsup-covered fries.

“Heading to the Waterfall now, right?” They tilted their head, but nodded. Sans gritted his teeth. “…Mind if I come with?”

Their expression might have been of widened eyes on any other person, but as it is they just sort of pursed their lips and continued to look up at him. He felt a brief flip of his stomach, worried he’d broken some sort of unspoken rule and-

Frisk nodded brightly, and the butterflies in Sans’ ribcage settled. It was like a switch had been flipped on, the child suddenly so excited they were practically falling out of their stool.

“Woah, slow down kiddo. Right now?” They were tugging on his hand, intent on sending his stool the same way as their own. “Alright, alright. I’m not used to going fast. Hey, Grillbz, put this on my tab.”

He barely had a chance to make a flippant hand gesture before Frisk hauled him out of the restaurant and into the snow.

* * *

“You like these, huh?” Sans asked, watching as Frisk leaned over an echo flower and whisper something to it. As far as he could tell, they hadn’t actually said _words_ to any of the little blue copycats they’d passed so far, more just a serious of quiet murmurs. Their own little language, in the way that kids do. Paps used to have his own, before he’d decided to be a freaking thespian.

When Frisk was done sharing their message, they stood up and nodded, beaming at him before moving on to the next one. Man, no wonder it took them so long to get through this place.

He’d followed them pretty far in, always careful to make himself scarce before going where Undyne would be lurking. It was a personal rule of his not to mess with the fishwoman, or to raise unanswerable questions. Plus, Frisk knew how to handle her.

The human rose again, gently brushing a finger against the echo flower’s petals.

“You’ve done this a lot now at this point, haven’t you?” he asked, stopping them before they and the blossom could part. Their expression was blank as they looked at him. “This whole thing.” He gestured around the cavern. “The timelines, the Undergound. All of it.”

Frisk paused, and for a second Sans was afraid he’d miscalculated, that they didn’t remember the resets at all. But then they nodded, short and sweet.

“Right.” Sans shuffled, his slippers squelching in the Waterfall’s puddles. “Then, I gotta ask…why are you going through it all? As far as I know, you’re living the same couple days over and over again. I have to know…why are you always coming back here?”

The continued to stare, face as neutral as it always was, only breaking to scrunch in concentration. They put a thoughtful finger to their lips, and Sans didn’t know if he could take standing there much longer. Had they really never considered it before? Was this whole thing a ruse to make him crack and admit he knew about the resets?

But then Frisk smiled, and shrugged, “…like you.”

“You…like us?” Frisk gave an affirmative nod. “Are you telling me you’ve been doing all this…to spend time with us?”

Sans got a double thumbs up for his Cool Detective skills.

“But…jeez kid. You know on the surface you can make _more_ friends. You don’t have to stay in the Undergound and remake the same ones over and over again.”

Frisk’s mouth sank into a small frown.

“Hey, no, I’m not trying to be a downer. In fact, I’m being an _upper_ , because you should really stay up there next time.” That remedied the onset of the pout, but Frisk still looked put out despite all puns. “And that can’t be the only thing, can it? There’s got to be another reason to stay down here, otherwise you’d die of boredom.”

That finally caught Frisk’s attention. They gleefully grabbed his hand again, and told him, “secrets!”

“Secrets?” But they were already pulling him away.

The two of them had to backtrack a little into the Waterfall, but eventually Frisk led him to a small cave in the wall Sans had never seen before. Inside, they let him go, and began kneeling over various toadstools while San’s eyes adjusted to the dark. When he blinked, there was a door in front of him, set into the back of the cave—likely locked by the way Frisk scurried around it.

They kept putting their hands to mushrooms, lighting them up in different combinations, then running back to check the door. Each time they were met with disappointment, and after ten minutes they returned to Sans.

“Secrets,” they explained indicating the room with open hands.

“I still don’t-”

Since he still didn’t get it, the pulled on his jacket sleeve, leading him to yet another part of the Waterfall he’d never seen before. More puzzles, and one wet pair of slippers later, and they arrived in a side corridor off the bridge seed room.

“Secrets,” Frisk said, crouching under an oddly-placed bench and retrieving a damp looking quiche. They handed it to him.

Sans stared down at the spinach and egg pie. “…Is this what you’ve been doing the whole time kid? Fitting yourself into a bunch of nooks and crannies?”

Frisk nodded, and sat down on the bench, patting the spot next to them. Sans joined them, and looked down at the quiche. Maybe it was no surprise that kid was so curious. Maybe they even had the right idea—after all, he’d been through just as many timelines as them, and all he’d done was sit on his ass, never knowing what surprises the place just outside his home had in store.

He took a bite of his quiche, and could practically hear Papyrus yelling at him for eating food off the floor. Somehow, that made it taste even better.

Once his reclaimed snack was nearly done, he looked over at Frisk. “Hey kid…I get it. I really do. It’s great to be safe, to stay with the familiar and only ever have to worry about making your own fun. But…just because you don’t have to grow up, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t.”

Frisk looked away, down at their shoes that didn’t touch the ground.

“While you’re doing this, folks are stuck. They can’t move on, and nobody wants to live the same week forever no matter how great it his.”

Sans watched the human sigh, the look on their face that of someone who doesn’t want to admit they’re wrong.

Sans polished off the quiche and put a hand on Frisk’s back. “…One more, alright? Can you promise me this will be the last?”

Frisk kicked their legs. They were a good kid, despite everything, and Sans knew that they would figure out what was best in the end. Sure it’d taken a while, but the person that sat with him today was his second closest friend.

They looked up. “One more,” they agreed.

San’s permi-grin widened, somehow. “Make it a good one, Frisk.” They hugged him, and several crumbs transferred from his shirt to theirs.


End file.
